A curtain-type closure is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,086,950 (H. Power). Therein is disclosed a doorway screen having a support extending transversely above a doorway opening. A plurality of individual flexible pastic strips or panels are secured to and suspended from the support. The strips are formed to have in horizontal cross-section a relatively thin straight central portion merging at the end edges with relatively thick bulbous or enlarged ends in the form of beads. The strips or panels are disposed to overlap each other with the end edges of one strip in abutting relationship with the straight portion of an adjacent strip to define discrete pockets between adjacent end edges. One of the difficulties in the aforesaid arrangement has to do with the material employed. The strips being provided with bulbous edges have no completely planar faces and, when the strips are supplied in rolled form, the material has the tendency to bow, and, as a consequence, is not stable in coiled form. In addition, the strips, when placed in overlapping relationship, have only linear contact with one another and do not have a face-to-face contacting relationship which means that an adequate seal is not provided. In addition, the strips of the Power patent are arranged with the bulbous portions constituting the only rib-like members on the respective faces. Consequently, engagement with a central portion of such strip construction is readily possible with the resultant disadvantage that the flat surfaces thereof are marred and the transparency characteristics of such strips are readily deteriorated.
The same deficiency is readily apparent in the type of construction illustrated in Canadian Pat. No. 975,286. In this patent, the strips make contacts at their respective ends through the intermediary of bulbous portions and the central portions of the strips are devoid of ribs or any other protective agency whereby a marring of the transparency thereof might be avoided.
Other patents relating generally to the subject matter of the present invention, without being anticipatory thereof, include British Pat. No. 824,402; British Pat. No. 882,638; French Pat. No. 1,308,952; French Pat. No. 1,508,336; and German Pat. No. 2,311,595. Some publications disclosing suspension arrangements of the same general nature as those to be discussed hereinunder are to be found in Catalogue SD-1-77-75M of the Nieco Company of Burlingame, Calif. and the Safe-Snap tape and track catalogue of Payne & Company of Dayton, Ohio (copyright Registration A381448).